Kimura Komako 木村駒子 - A4 Riso Print (Signed and Numbered)
Kimura Komako 木村駒子
Suffragist, actress, magazine editor, and mystic researcher
フェミニスト、女優、神秘主義研究家、編集者 (1887年7月29日–1980年7月10日)
「今の状態では、日本女性が絶対に自分で考えない。日本女性たちにフェミニズムについての意見を求めると、『それをお父さんに聞いてみる』とか『主人に聞いてみる』と答える。」
Kimura Komako was trained as an actress by her grandmother and mother in shamisen, dance, and theatre from the age of four years old. At age 14, her parents set up an arranged marriage for her with an unknown groom-to-be. In an unusual and courageous move, she fled to another city to become a dancer—and was arrested and tried for making her performances free to the public. Her defence saved her, and she turned her interest to the suffragist movement in America, where women were desperately seeking the ability to vote.
Kimura founded The Real New Women’s Association in Japan and in 1917 she travelled to New York to study English and the American women’s suffragist movement. She raised funds for both Japan’s and America’s suffrage efforts, and famously attended marches in the city dressed in traditional kimono alongside her American sisters. Although the suffrage movement in Japan peaked in the early 1920s, it was not until 1945 that Japanese women earned universal voting rights.
In an interview from 1918, Kimura stated, “As things are now, the Japanese woman does not dare think for herself. When I talk to Japanese women about feminism, they say, ‘I’ll ask my father’ or ‘I’ll ask my husband’—they are not like American women, clear-minded and independent of thought.”
What is a riso print?
These prints use risograph technology, a method of printing developed in Japan in the mid-1980s. It can be described as a mix between screenprinting and photocopying. The risograph process produces prints with extremely vibrant, crisp inks, and sometimes these inks overlap during the printing process to create interesting and unique details. These soy-based inks also have a lower environmental impact.
Product details
Printed in Tokyo, Japan by Hand Saw Press print studio. Each print is A4 size (210 x 297 mm / 8.27 x 11.69 in) and printed on Natural White 186gsm Takeo Araveal paper. Acid-free and FSC Approved.
Each print is signed with a traditional Japanese ‘hanko’ artist stamp and hand-numbered from a limited edition of 20. Prints are packaged in cello bags with rigid cardboard inserts and shipped in flat mailers.
Please note that frames are not included.
Delivery times & prices
We ship worldwide. 日本へ国際郵便で送ります。
UK deliveries: 3-4 working days via Royal Mail 1st class
International deliveries available via Royal Mail International Standard Airmail
Prices calculated during checkout
For more information on shipping times for international deliveries, please check the delivery & returns page.
